Correction fluids used for whiting out writing errors are known. They are typically applied, for example, by means of a brush which is attached to the screw cap of the container. In addition to having pigments and fillers such as clay, the correcting fluid also contains a polymeric binder and dispersant to anchor the pigments on the paper, as well as a dispersant medium or solvent to maintain the viscosity of the correcting fluid. The solvents are generally volatile organic solvents such as hydrocarbons or chlorinated products of hydrocarbons.
Correction fluids suffer at least two shortcomings; they are environmentally unfriendly, and they allow aqueous ink dyes to bleed through, or into, the applied correcting fluid. Bleeding means that the white correcting layer assumes a bluish or reddish tint or other type of blemish color due to the ink dye penetrating the surface being corrected. While aqueous based correcting fluids minimize the environmental concerns, they have not found wide acceptance as substitutes for solvent-based correcting. Water-soluble ink dyes present in fiber markers and felt tip pens dissolve in aqueous correcting fluid and penetrate and bleed into the surface at the point where the correction fluid was applied. What is required is a non-bleeding correcting fluid that is effective in covering writing errors without the use of volatile organic solvents, while other properties, such as water resistance, opacity and curing of the applied correcting fluid is maintained.
What has been found to be novel and unanticipated is an aminosilane-modified composition, the use of which prevents solvent-based and aqueous-based ink dyes from bleeding into or through the correcting layer.
There are several advantages of the non-bleeding system of the present invention: first, it prevents water-soluble ink dyes in fiber markers and felt tip pens from bleeding into the correcting fluid; second, it maintains properties, such as water resistance, opacity and curing of the applied correcting fluid; third, it provides a water-based correcting system that is equivalent in performance to solvent-based correcting fluids; and finally, it provides a water-based correction fluid which is generally solvent-free and contains low levels of VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) when compared to solvent-based systems.